The 5th Ring of Miyamoto Musashi's method of strategy is spoken of in
the Book of the Void, the last part of Musashi's famous Book of Five
Rings. Curiously, he says very little about the void, saying instead
more what the void is not: "People in this world look at things
mistakenly, and think that what they do not understand must be the
void. This is not the true void. It is bewilderment."

Still, Musashi does drop some hints in this one-page book. "What is
called the spirit of the void is where there is nothing." And "By
knowing things that exist, you can know that which does not exist.
That is the void."

So it is that we wind up bandying about such terms as "non-being," and
"non-existence," and "emptiness." Can anyone really say what this
means, and more to the point, what any of this has to do with
strategy? Perhaps not, and following Musashi's lead, perhaps the less
said, the better.

Part of the problem may be how we are wired for language. Anything
that can be named (thank you, Lao Tsu) is, well... a thing. Nouns, we
are taught, name things, and "nothing" and "vacuum" and "void" are
nouns. Strange that even "nothing" or "no thing" can take on a kind of
existence, through the magic and illusion of language.

Practically speaking however, we can apply certain qualities of the
void to our strategies. Clarity, spaciousness, and freedom are
characteristics of the Masters, as if they contend with No Thing. In
simple terms, this suggests to me that the mind and body are well
coordinated. Action is always directed toward openings rather than
obstacles. Union occurs, and so the potential for the conflict of
opposition is annihilated. Thought and perception arise freely and
spontaneously, but we are not bound by expectation or outcome.

"Then you will come to think of things in a wide sense and, taking the
void as the Way, you will see the Way as void.

In the void is virtue, and no evil. Wisdom has existence, principle
has existence, the Way has existence, spirit is nothingness."

It's natural for
our minds to fixate on things and events. Our existence is inevitably
circumscribed by our interactions and relationships. But there is
far more spaciousness in the universe than
there is occupancy. The Way of the Void can correct the balance of our
perceptions and actions. We are free to continue to exist and involve
ourselves in complexity and diversity, but our strategy can be much
more compelling when effortlessness and infinite opportunity form the
essential field of all our endeavors.